Seo Ji Village Shrine

History & origins

The Catholic history of Seoji Village is connected with believers who moved their homes during the late Joseon persecutions. According to official materials of the Diocese of Wonju, the family of Blessed Choe Hae-seong John moved through several places in the aftermath of the 1801 persecution and eventually came to Seoji in order to practice the faith more freely. As Catholic families gathered there, a small Catholic village developed.

When the Gihae Persecution broke out in 1839, Choe Hae-seong sent his family to safety but returned to the village to retrieve Church books and was arrested. He was martyred at the provincial government office in Wonju, and the memory of Choe Birgitta and other Catholic forebears is also linked with the region’s history of persecution. The persecutions dispersed the community, although diocesan materials indicate that traces of Catholic life in the Seoji area continued through the time of the 1866 persecution and beyond.

After the persecutions, the Catholic community in the village became greatly weakened, and the memory of Seoji’s martyr faith remained largely within local history. The Diocese of Wonju spent roughly three decades examining related materials and the site in order to clarify its historical significance. In 2006 the diocesan bishop and specialists in Church history visited the location and assessed its value as a site connected with martyrdom.

The development of a formal shrine took shape much more recently. In February 2020, a resident donated a house and field for the commemoration of the martyr faith, providing a basis for a memorial space. The diocese then began developing Seoji Village as a small shrine for remembering and honoring the martyrs. In this way, the memory of an old Catholic village has been reconnected with contemporary pilgrimage and prayer.